Kim Longinotto is a British documentary filmmaker and cinematographer. Some of her most well known work include The Day I Will Never Forget (Kim Longinotto, 2002), which follows stories of Kenyan women struggling under the pressures of female genital mutilation, and Divorce Iranian Style (Kim Longinotto, 1998) which shows 3 couples carrying out the difficult process of divorce in the Islamic republic.
Longinotto is known for making films that highlight female victims of oppression and discrimination. Her documentaries can be classified as cinema veritè. She calls her body of work an “army of women” who she often refers to as ‘rebels’. Longinotto holds the belief that women are more interesting and passionate to film and often highlights that the only reason she gets asked why she focuses on women in her documentaries is because it is still an unfortunate unusual occurrence to have films centre around women.
She often says that “We make the films that are like the people we are” and as an observatory person her documentaries often reflect the way she prefers to work. In one interview she emphasises that she likes to make the people in the film feel as though it is more their film than hers. Whilst her documentaries often tells stories of women standing up against tradition, mostly lawful traditions, she argues that her aim isn’t to change laws but to change mindsets; she hopes her films will change the mentality of the viewer in the context of their own lives by learning and observing others lives in a different context. She says she prefers if her films don’t have conclusions and instead hopes they raise questions.
‘I don’t think of films as documents or records of things. I try to make them as like the experience of watching a fiction film as possible, though, of course, nothing is ever set up” – Longinotto
The main noticeable stylistic feature of her documentaries is her unobtrusiveness that enables the women on camera to claim their own voice and presence to tell their story the way they wish to. To maintain this style, Longinotto excludes using narration, staging or lighting and acts as a silent witness. This style is meant to encourage the impression that “no one is watching” Longinotto effaces their shooting style by communicating without words to provoke a gentle form of filmmaking.
Interestingly, Longinotto is very keen on subject awareness and specified that she prefers if the people on camera acknowledge her as they will therefore be talking to the audience as well as the people around them in their environment allowing them to get the points across that they wish to portray to the wider audience. She also has frequently expressed her dislike for the expression “fly on the wall” as it makes the filmmaker seem like a cold observer. Instead she prefers to see how the camera effects the actions of the subjects: for example, in Sisters In Law (Kim Longinotto, 2005) she comments on the fact that the men in charge of one of the women’s divorce forgot the camera was there momentarily and began to ridicule her however, when they took note of the camera once again after the divorce had been granted they took on a disposition of happiness for her and her case.
Loninotto also takes on the role of cinematographer and camera operator in her work as she believes it is more pragmatic and allows her to make films exactly how she envisions them rather than attempting to tell someone else what to do. She tends to put together clips as she’s shooting them. Her camerawork avoids zooms or pans in order to create the illusion that the camera is the ‘eyes’ of the audience.
A noticeable feature of her documentary Sisters In Law is the lack of context context provided to the audience. The absence of details about the court procedure in Cameroon allows to focus of the cases and the power of the women in authoritative positions within the environment. Longinotto avoids any interview scenarios and this is clear in sister In Law; although there is one sequence in the film in which an off-camera question has been asked although this is not heard and the audience only sees the woman answering whilst looking at the off-camera presence.
Despite her individualistic style, Longinotto is rarely referred to as an auteur. Perhaps this is due to her lack of filmmaking persona on-screen that male documentarians like Nick Broomfield and Michael Moore, filmmakers whom Longinotto herself has expressed admiration for, do.
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